Groups opposed to development in Malaekahana voiced their concerns about the Envision Laie plan at a Honolulu Hale news conference Wednesday, the day before the issue will be heard by a Honolulu City Council committee.

Leaders from the Defend Oahu Coalition and Aloha Aina No Koolau Loa said the project is unnecessary and would irrevocably destroy a community cherished for its rural qualities.

Joshua Noga, spokesman for Aloha Aina No Koolau Loa, said community associations from Waiahole, Waikane, Kaaawa, Kahana, Punaluu, Hauula and Kauwela are among those who oppose development in Malaekahana, the most contentious part of Hawaii Reserves Inc.’s Envision Laie plan.

The plan is included in Bill 47 (2013), the proposed update of the city’s Koolau Loa Sustainable Communities Plan. The Council Zoning and Planning Committee is scheduled to hear the bill at 9 a.m. Thursday at City Hall.

"Our rural community wants to remain a rural community where our beach parks and mountain trails serve as the weekend playground for many looking to escape the concrete jungle and gridlock traffic they face every day," Noga said. "Our community wants our ag-zoned lands to remain ag-zoned lands dedicated to increasing the food production of our island."

Tim Vanderveer, Defend Oahu Coalition co-chairman, said people from Koolau Loa and the North Shore have historically banded together to stave off development in Waiahole-Waikane, Sacred Falls, Waimea Valley and Pupukea-Paumalu.

The groups praised Council Zoning Chairman Ikaika Anderson for announcing that he will propose deleting any language in the Koolau Loa plan that references development at Malaekahana.

Hawaii Reserves manages Brigham Young University-Hawaii and the Polynesian Cultural Center for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The developer wants to be able to expand the BYUH campus at Laie and add housing at Malaekahana, as well as commercial and business development in both areas.

Plans call for 875 housing units during the next 25 years, and Hawaii Reserves is promising that half will be affordable.

Hawaii Reserves and its supporters say the expansion is critical if future generations of Laie families want to stay there.

Kela Miller, vice president of the Laie Community Association and a fourth-generation resident of Laie, said she and a majority of her neighbors want the expansion.

"We need it for our families," Miller said. "They’re living three, four families in the same household."

As for neighboring communities who object to the expansion, Miller said: "Do they have a plan that benefits everyone in the Koolau Loa area? I don’t think so."

The Koolau Loa Sustainable Communities Plan is one of two major issues before the Zoning Committee on Thursday.

Also scheduled is the committee’s first look at D.R. Horton-Schuler Inc.’s Hoopili project. At 11,875 units, the development between Kapolei and Ewa is the largest to go before the Council in at least two decades.

Supporters say the project will bring needed homes and jobs. Opponents say prime agricultural lands would be lost and that West Oahu traffic would grow exponentially worse.